I (29F) was running a company for my former boss (we’ll call her Julie) when I was 25 years old. I began working there in June 2020. She was the owner but had to step away from actually running the company due to personal reasons so I took over the reigns of running the company while she focused on life.

A little about Julie: She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (fine-no problem for me I’m very patient and understanding.) However, Julie never took her medication (she would tell me this) so she was either very manic or very low-though she tended to be more on the manic side. Due to her manic episodes, she had caused a lot of damage between our company and our clients and the people we represented. I had to constantly clean up her messes while also dealing with the verbally abusive phone calls and voice memos she would bombard me with.

In December 2021 I quit my position at the company for several reasons. I had gone through something extremely traumatic that left me barely functioning. I also quit because I couldn’t take Julie anymore-she was just so mean and her 9 year old grandson who she has custody of would always tell me how “lucky I am to even have this job.” Wonder who he heard that from 🙄

After quitting in December 2021, I learned that in January 2022 there were contracts being sent and signed using my signature. I also learned that same month that Julie had sent out an email threatening legal action against one of our former independent contractors and signed the email with my name. I have a copy of one contract and a copy of the email as well.

I asked her about the signature on the contract and she said another employee did it and that it’s my fault because I recommended that employee to take over. Honestly (and I told her this too) I just needed to leave the job so I just said “yeah i think ‘so and so’ can do it” and that just because I recommend someone doesn’t mean it’s my responsibility that she chose to put them in a specific position. She tried to blame her business screw ups all on me.

Here’s my dilemma, since I had quit when it was roughly still covid time, when I started feeling better enough to go back to work it was challenging to find anything. I was desperate (and in hindsight still not thinking clearly due to that trauma) and asked Julie for my job back. She gave it back to me and I stayed until April 2023 when I quit for the second and final time.

Now that more time has passed and I have been able to process the other things that were clouding my mind, I’m really realizing how fucked up and illegal that is. I know I should have done something sooner but like as I just said, the fog has lifted and realizing this along with all of the other horrible things she has said to me and others has me so angry. She is a very scammy person in general and hides behind other people like her employees or her husband so her name doesn’t come up.

Have I totally screwed myself from taking any type of legal action for forgery since I went back to that job after the forgery happened?

The company was based in Illinois at the time and moved to Florida in 2023 after I had quit.

Again, I know I should have done things sooner. I was younger, less experienced, and going through the unspeakable. My brain wasn’t clear but now that it is I am curious if there is any recourse.

Thank you all in advance!